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The Annoying and Wonderful Thing about Yoga

Perhaps simultaneously the most awesome and annoying thing about yoga …

Your Yoga Practice is a Microcosm of Your Life

They say that how you are on your mat is how you are in life.
Practicing being a certain way in your yoga practice can help you notice
your patterns and make changes in your life “off your mat”. I hate
this. It is so over-the-top-cheesy and so true at the same time.Once you start noticing your patterns, you can’t stop. It impacts everything in your life. Consider yourself warned!Take for example how you react and respond to not being able to do a
particular pose. Likely it is similar to how you react to other
limitations in your life. Patterns! We all have them! When you can’t do a particular pose …

Do you feel bad about it? Get down on yourself for not being able to do it?

Does it make you frustrated? Is your Type-A personality kicking in, wanting to push yourself harder?

Do you resist taking a modification or variation because you
don’t want to do something different than everyone else? (Do you
feel everyone will judge you if you do?)

Do you constantly compare yourself to others in the room?

Additionally, the transition between the poses is revealing about you and your patterns. Are you: rushing? lingering? paying attention? checked out?This is a big one for me personally. When I first started practicing
I liked to get into the pose as quickly as possible. Ta-Da! Look at me!
I’m here! Doing this pose! This approach was not dissimilar to how I
tended to be in life- rushing from one thing to the next. Yoga has
taught me to pay attention to how I transition between things in life. I
now pay much more attention to buffers and the space between.I could go on and on about this stuff. But I don’t have to. As soon
as you start regularly practicing yoga, you’ll know it to be true. (and will be annoyed by it, too)